


Rhythm of the Evening

by paperxcrowns



Series: whumptober/whumpwinter 2020 [1]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: BAMF Number Five | The Boy, BAMF Vanya Hargreeves, Hurt Number Five | The Boy, Hurt Vanya Hargreeves, Number Five | The Boy Whump, POV Vanya Hargreeves, Reginald Hargreeves' A+ Parenting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-15
Updated: 2020-10-15
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:07:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,604
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27032407
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paperxcrowns/pseuds/paperxcrowns
Summary: day 1 +2 : waking up restrained + kidnappedFive and Vanya sneak out of the house to watch a movie and get kidnapped, because they can't even have one night off.
Relationships: Number Five | The Boy & Vanya Hargreeves
Series: whumptober/whumpwinter 2020 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1972915
Comments: 6
Kudos: 118
Collections: Whumptober 2020





	Rhythm of the Evening

**Author's Note:**

> i wrote most of this on a school computer during my free hour and i had to google a few things for this and im a little scared i'll be called to the counselor's office because of it

This had started as a good idea. Well, not exactly. Reginald had already been in a sour mood, and Vanya had taken the brunt of it and Five had found her crying in her room when she never showed up for dinner. He’d felt angry for Vanya, because she never would be. It was those damn pills-- they made her so passive. So Five had told her they would go out and see a movie-- the old man wouldn’t mind spending a few bucks of his fortune, and if he did mind, Five felt they needed compensation for the way Reginald treated them. Vanya had been worried, afraid of the repercussions they’d face if they were ever caught. Five had assured they wouldn’t be-- Reginald never came at night. He was always in his office. And they would be back before midnight. And he’d told Vanya they would watch Jurassic Park 3, and her resolve crumbled and she’d caved.

Five had taken care to shut her door and they jumped in an alley flanking the cinema. Five grinned at Vanya, a mischievous little thing that wormed its way on his face whenever he was aware he was doing something he probably shouldn’t and it was guaranteed to make a few people angry. Vanya couldn’t help grinning back, excitement and exhilaration at sneaking out to watch a movie immediately brightening her sour mood. Her cheek was only just starting to bruise and her eyes were still a little red, but she didn’t care.

“Klaus is gonna lose his mind when he finds out we went to see this movie without him,” Five said, still grinning.

Vanya faltered a bit. “We could go back with Ben and Klaus,” she said, eyeing the cinema entrance sadly.

Five frowned. “They can go see it whenever they want. Besides, it wasn’t _them_ dad yelled at for fifteen minutes.”

Vanya stayed silent.

“I don’t hear an objection,” Five said, grabbing his sister’s wrist and jumped directly inside the cinema, not bothering with tickets. They wouldn’t be able to purchase any, anyways. “We could get popcorn.”

“And skittles?” Vanya asked.

Five shrugged. “Get whatever you want. The old man owes us.”

He pulled two twenties out of his pocket and smirked at Vanya. “Didn’t even notice I took them.”

Vanya abstained from telling him their dad had, in fact, probably noticed, and instead accepted the money and got in line.

Once they got their snacks, Five led them away from the crowd and jumped them inside the dark theater. The ads were still playing when Five and Vanyan found empty seats near the back.

“I still can’t believe they managed to get away with mixing frog DNA with dinosaur DNA," Five muttered to Vanya. "It doesn't even make _sense_."

She snorted. She knew Five preferred Star Trek and didn’t care much for Jurassic Park, but Vanya had fallen in love with the movies, and Five always agreed to watch the movies with her even if he’d already seen them ten times. It made her feel less lonely to know that someone genuinely cared about her, even when she was worried he would eventually stop, and hate her like the others. That train of thought screeched to a stuttering stop when Five offered her a Reese’s Cup as the lights dimmed and the movie began.

Vanya was still grinning from ear to ear when they left the theater. The sky was now a drape of black velvet, faint diamond pinpricks dotting it. The air had also cooled down significantly and Vanya was distantly glad she’d worn tights and a wool sweater. She brushed her bangs from her face. Five didn’t seem to care that his dark bangs were fluttering in his face, his hands were shoved in his pockets and he walked alongside her. They’d shoved what remained of their candy in their pockets for later, on another night where Five would be lying on the rug in Vanya’s room deciphering physics textbooks while Vanya would practice the violin.

Vanya sighed, gazing at the sky as they neared the alley they’d popped up in. they’d been silent the whole walk back. Here, the sound of conversations were gone, the night was blissfully quiet.

“What is it?” Five asked.

“This was nice,” she said. “I don’t want to go back home yet.”

Five stayed silent. Vanya could feel his gaze on her even with her head tilted upward. He was thinking. His head was always full of thoughts.

This had been one of the best nights she’d had. The freedom, the lack of worry. Just here with her brother watching a wonderful movie and stuffing their faces with candy and laughing imagining their father’s reaction. Back home, she felt suffocated, small, unimportant. She wanted what she had with Five with all of her siblings. She wanted to be included and loved and free of her father’s harsh words and her siblings’ mocking tones.

Five’s mouth opened, as if to say something, but someone else spoke up before he could.

“Don’t worry, love,” a voice purred, “you won’t be going back home.”

Five was quick, but the man was faster. Just as Five disappeared in a flash of blue, the man darted from the shadows, a gun drawn, and fired. Vanya whimpered and turned to run away when a burning pain in her arm made her gasp aloud and stumble. The man surged forward and grabbed her, ignoring her grunt of protest and squirming, raking his arms with shaking hands. She swallowed back the unbearable pain, feeling her mind go blank, before forcefully pulling it back. This wasn’t the time.

“I know you’re here,” the man said to the empty alley. “I’ve got backup waiting just outside the alley. Turn yourself in and the girl won’t get a second bullet through her leg.”

The thought of getting shot again made Vanya’s brain go double speed, shoving the pain aside and making her hyperaware of her surroundings.

 _This must be what going into shock feels like_ , was her first thought.

Her second was more of an impulse. She slammed her foot hard onto her captor’s. He hissed and his grip loosened on her. She attempted to slip out, but he struck her across the cheek with the gun. With a surprised cry of pain, Vanya hit the ground as the man trained the gun on her.

“You bitch,” the man hissed.

Vanya wondered if this was what it felt like to face bad guys on mission-- this cold dread and sharp fear mixing into fiery adrenaline. If it was, she would be just as brave as her siblings. She glared at the man.

Five popped up in front of her, seething.

“Call her a bitch again and I’ll slit your throat,” he growled.

The man smirked at Vanya, though she felt it was more aimed at Five. “There you are,” he said. “If you cooperate, I won’t have to.”

“What do you want?” Vanya asked.

Five shot her a sharp look that probably translated to ‘shut up’.

The man waved a hand through the air, dismissing her question. “Don’t you two worry your pretty little heads about that.”

Five grit his teeth, and Vanya felt the adrenaline start to wear off. Suddenly, she wasn’t a brave hero, she was just a scared eleven year old in a very real situation with an arm gushing blood at an alarming rate. She felt dizzy.

“If you’re gonna hold us for ransom, don’t bother with Vanya,” he said, lifting his chin as he often did when defying their father. “Dad doesn’t care about her.”

Vanya lowered her eyes, her face burning. It was a harsh statement, but it was her brother's unwavering protectiveness that made her eyes burn. It was futile, though; she knew she wouldn't leave him alone with them even if he asked her.

The man didn’t move. “I don’t have time for the family drama. You’re both going to behave and come quietly.”

Vanya closed her eyes and got to her feet, keeping her teeth clenched, trying her best to avoid making any sound. The searing pain in her arm had come back like a tidal wave, wiping her mind of everything except white hot pain. Her hands shook.

Five stepped forward, reaching for Vanya, but a dark shape came forward from the mouth of the alleyway and slammed the butt of their handgun against the back of his head and he collapsed bonelessly on the ground.

"Five!" Vanya screamed, reaching for him, but thick arms wrapped themselves around her middle.

She struggled like a wild beast, trying to reach her unconscious brother. A rag was slapped against her face and she made the mistake of inhaling sharply in surprise; she was overtaken by dizziness. In a moment she couldn't feel her limbs, her body overtaken with a welcoming numbness, slowly reached her mind. Her body relaxed and she sagged into the arms holding her up, eyes fluttering. The last thing she saw before darkness swallowed her whole was a third person hoisting Five upright, his head lolling.

* * *

Vanya didn't so much wake up rather than slowly rose back into consciousness and overtaken by a violent migraine that fully wrenched her into consciousness. She moaned in pain, her arm twinging, leaning her head to the side. She didn't throw up, for which she was thankful for.

"Vanya?" a soft voice asked.

She hummed in response, trying to use her arms to push herself off the cold wall, but found herself stopped short. She yanked again and found resistance. She looked over in mild alarm, her mind still a bit foggy, mainly because of the fading headache. Her wrist was pinned to the wall by a metal cuff hammered into the wall besides her head. Her other wrist was similarly shackled.

"Vanya!" the same voice-- Five's voice, her muddled brain supplied-- called again.

She looked over. Her arm was regaining feeling and burned even more.

She first noticed that he was also restrained against the wall in a similar fashion, his face twisted in an annoyed scowl which didn't match his soft tone when he'd called her name. The second thing she noticed was the man standing in the room, aiming a small silver gun directly at her head. She startled, feeling much more awake and alert.

"Good. You're both awake," he said.

This was not the same man who'd surprised them in the alley. This was a different one. He had a full brown beard and brown hair streaked through with gray. One of his eyes was dark, but the other was milky and pale, an ugly scar trailing from his eyebrow down to his cheek.

"I already told you our father wouldn't care enough to pay a ransom for us," Five spat bitterly, interrupting the man before he got to speak. "You should've taken Number One instead. Or Three. Hell, even Two is in better favors than us."

"He's rich and you two are his superpowered freaks," the man said. "Trust me, we'll make him an offer he can't refuse."

Vanya met Five's eyes. Neither of them knew what they possibly had to offer other than being Reginald's adopted children, and that wouldn't get them far.

The door opened and the man who'd ambushed them stepped in, burly muscles obvious even when hidden by a navy blue turtleneck. "And even then, if he doesn't need one of you, we can always kill the one too many," he said, his face betraying no more emotion than his voice. "Maybe the girl."

"No!" was ripped out of Five's lungs, laced with desperation before his brain was even aware what he'd said. When he did, his face blanched.

The man in the turtleneck raised an eyebrow. "Interesting."

Five caught himself soon enough. "If you hurt her," he warned, voice cold and steely, "I'll get out of your flimsy restraints and kill you myself."

Muscled Man sneered impatiently and waved at the man with the scar. "Our friend has quite the mouth on him, Anderson."

The scarred man, Anderson, stepped forward and slammed his gun into Five's jaw, earning a shout of pain from him and Vanya yelled at them to back off. Five spat out a glob of blood onto the concrete floor.

“Fuck you,” he managed, his jaw already red.

Muscled Man sighed and waved his hand. Anderson stepped forward again and this time slammed his foot in Five’s side. This time he seemed prepared, and swallowed back his cry of pain. Vanya could hear the crack of a rib buckling and felt tears prick at her eyes.

“Five, stop!” she called, pulling uselessly against the bonds.

Her head ached again, a steady drumming against her temple, and every movement of her arm sent red hot pain rocking through her body, but that didn’t matter when Five kept provoking them. She glanced around, hoping to find a window, but there were only concrete walls and a metal door. No windows. Despair twisted viciously in her stomach. Their siblings would find them, she tried to convince herself. Their two captors left the room, talking in hushed tones, leaving the door open. They’d warned Five-- if he jumped they would shoot Vanya.

“They’ll find us,” she told Five, who was breathing shallowly, his face tight with barely concealed pain. He looked up at her. “They’ll realize we’re gone. Ben will notice first. They’ll look everywhere and when they can’t find us, they’ll tell Dad and he’ll look for us.”

Dad punishing them for going out seemed much preferable to this situation. Tears burned in the back of her eyes as she blinked them away.

“They’ll look for you,” she said quietly, a lump in her throat.

“They’ll worry about you, too, Vanya,” Five said. His voice wheezed slightly and he cleared his throat. “They still love you. It’s Dad’s fault we’re like this-- pitted against each other like hounds out for blood, seeking out weaknesses to mock.”

He sounded so bitter, the words hung heavy in the room. Five was looking at her, an indescribable emotion on his face. Vanya closed her eyes.

“I just want to be around them,” she said ruefully. “Like I am with you. Like I’m not useless because I’m not special.”

Five barked out a laugh, that turned into coughing and wincing. “Whatever we are, it’s not special. If it was special, we wouldn’t be living like this. It’s a nightmare. If this is special, I don’t want it.”

Vanya wished she could hug Five. “We could run away,” she said timidly.

Five looked up at her, surprised. He blinked. “What?”

Vanya flushed. “We could run away. We have powers. You could-- you could teleport us to somewhere nice. Maybe one of those pretty beaches. We could live there. Together. And Happy. We could take Mom. Diego wouldn’t go without her.”

Five looked surprised, but it quickly turned into a pensive look. “That-- we-we could.”

Their conversation ended by the door slamming open. Three men stepped in, Anderson, Muscled Man, and the third captor, a woman with vicious pale eyes and pale hair pulled back in a ponytail. Vanya felt uncomfortable under her gaze.

Muscled Man approached her and crouched next to her. Vanya tried to squirm away, hating how close he was to her. Five pulled against his restraints, scowling.

“So here’s the thing,” he said. From this close up, Vanya could see his eyes were dark brown and he had dozens of tiny, white scars on his hands, like he’d lost a fight against a particularly angry squirrel. She would have laughed if she weren’t so scared. Anderson still had the gun in his hand.

“I’m sure your brother is lying,” Muscled Man spoke, studying her face. “There's no way your father wouldn't want your chubby little faces home. Maybe we'll start with the princess here. That ought to convince daddy dearest to agree to our demands. You two will need to look very pretty for the picture.”

Vanya swallowed, trying her best not to look as scared as she felt. She had to be as brave as she could.

“What picture?” she asked, frowning.

“Proof for your father,” the woman spoke. Her voice was hoarse, like a car driving over gravel. “We can’t tell him we got two of his brats without proof, now?” she grinned, all teeth, much the way a predator would grin. It made Vanya shudder.

“Meredith,” Muscled Man said. “You’ll scare them.”

Both Five and Vanya stiffened, both looking equally outraged at the man’s patronizing tone.

Muscled Man reached over to Vanya’s arm and, before Vanya even had the time to wonder what on earth he could be doing, he pressed his fingers down on her bullet wound. Vanya _screamed_. It echoed around the room, and her world narrowed to the spikes of pain and the fingers pressing further down. Her vision started fuzzing out when the man released her. She was panting heavily, her head full of cotton, her throat raw.

“Don’t touch her!” Five snarled, tearing and pulling viciously enough at the restraints that Vanya was sure it would leave a mark.

She focused on breathing, trying not to pass out. A breath in, a breath out. In and out. Trying not to throw up, swallowing back her nausea, sweat dripping down her face. Her arm burned.

“Please!” Five begged. It gave Vanya pause. Five never begged. “Please! Dad doesn’t care about her! She doesn’t have powers!”

“Five,” she said weakly, barely above a whisper. “Stop. Don’t.” She knew what he was doing. But making them hurt him would hurt her more.

Muscled Man ignored him. He punched Vanya in the face. Her head cracked against the wall, jolting her skull and making her gasp at the sudden pain, only accentuating her migraine. The bruises on her cheeks both stung, and the punch would surely leave a nasty bruise around her nose. She felt something drip from her nose and tasted copper on her lips. Her nose was bleeding. Oh.

“STOP!” Five screamed loud enough that it cut through the ringing in her ears. “Please.” He pulled in vain at the cuffs again. “Please stop hurting her.” His voice steeled, as if an idea had popped in his head. “Or are you just that cowardly that you’d only hurt a kid without powers?”

It was a bait, but it worked.

Muscled Man’s eyes darkened with fury and he stood up.

“Ace,” Meredith warned. “Don’t hurt them too much. They’re kids. Don’t kill them too soon.”

Five turned his eyes to her. “Thanks,” he snapped sarcastically.

He was about to say something else, but a fist went flying and sent his head snapping to the side, his body half twisting, following the motion.

“Anderson,” Ace said, “keep your gun on the girl. Woudn’t want her to try anything funny.”

Vanya sniffled, trying to keep the blood from dripping off her chin in vain. Her head still felt full of cotton. The metallic taste of blood sobered her right up, almost making her throw up.

Ace went for another punch, then another, to Five’s face, his stomach, and Five held in his cries. Vanya’s head cleared, and she caught on, if only too late.

“Five!” She screamed. “Stop! Stop it! Please!” She blinked her tears away, tried to force them away.

“Is that all you’ve got?” Five asked, almost imperceptibly slurred.

Ace pulled out a knife that had been tucked in his boot and Vanya screamed. Ace hardly paid her any attention as he cut a precise cut on Five’s arm. He flinched, but he steeled himself for the next cut. Ace cut a little deeper, drawing more blood, and at one point, Five couldn’t hold in his hiss of pain. Vanya kept begging the man to stop, tears tracing clear tracks through the grime on her face, stinging her bruised cheeks and mixing with blood.

After a few cuts, Ace cut the deepest one, and Five finally cried out, panting hard. Ace still didn’t stop, cutting deeply in Five’s collarbone, his chest, his arms and shoulders, each cut ripping out a cry of pain from Five.

Vanya pulled and pulled and pulled but the restraints never gave. Her wrists were raw, blood trickling down her arm, wishing and wishing she had Luther's strength or Allison's voice just to stop the torture. To stop watching her brother take a beating meant for both of them.

Ace stood up, wiping the knife on his pant leg calmly. Five’s face was pale-- either from blood loss or pain, maybe both-- and his arms were red, staining his shirt. Anderson had not moved once, and Meredith looked almost gleeful.

“You still feeling smart now?” Ace asked, his voice the sharp edge of a sword.

Five still found it in himself to smirk. Vanya’s mind screamed and she murmured ‘no’ over and over, like a mantra, willing Five to stop, to just stop. But he just never knew when enough was enough. Not with Reginald, and definitely not with kidnappers.

  
“My grandma is scarier than you,” he managed, chest heaving. Dimly, he thought it wasn’t really fair to his captors; Reginald was a terrible father, but he was an efficient enough teacher in combat training for Five and Vanya to joke about how his mother must have been _terrifying_.

Ace seemed to have had enough. He snapped. He grabbed the knife and plunged it in Five’s side and twisted the blade. Five screamed in agony. Vanya screamed in horror, tears spilling freely down her face. Ace pulled out the knife and motioned for Meredith to come forward. She smiled and sauntered over, pulling out a phone from the pocket of her jean jacket.

"Smile! Make it look convincing for the camera!” she said brightly, as if it were a family picture.

She snapped a picture of Five, all bloody, then snapped one of Vanya, dazed and with a bullet wound in her arm that had bled through her sweater and was slowly seeping into the fabric of her skirt. Once the pictures were taken, the three left, and Vanya heard the lock turn and the steps receding. They were alone.

“Five!” she sobbed out, leaning forward, ignoring her abused wrists. “Five! Please wake up!”

Five’s head lolled. “I’m not asleep,” he slurred out, his eyes clouded with pain. There was blood everywhere.

“How much does it hurt?” she asked, her chest constricting. Her eyes were dry, but that was more from dehydration. Her small frame still shuddered with sobs.

Five closed his eyes and rested his head against the wall. “Uh…. I… it just hurts. Everywhere.” he inhaled sharply. “The bastard stabbed me.”

Vanya let out a laugh, mixed with a sob. “Why did you provoke him?” she asked.

“Couldn’t… hurt you,” his words were more slurred, his eyelids fluttering.

“I could have taken it, too. You’re also eleven, Five. It hurts me to see you get hurt.”

Five opened his eyes with great difficulty and fixed her with tired eyes. “We already hurt you at home,” he explained. “‘S’not fair.”

Vanya opened her mouth, but nothing came out. She was stunned.

“Tell me….” he paused. “Tell me about when we run away.”

Vanya swallowed a few times, sure that if she opened her mouth, the dam would break and she would break down. “O-okay.”

The next few hours were agony. Vanya’s exhaustion was catching up to her, but she tried her best to keep talking to Five, to keep him awake, but her head felt almost detached from her body, like she was floating in another reality. Five had started shivering and sweating, his short-sleeved shirt doing nothing to warm him in the cold room, his shirt slashed practically to pieces.

Their captors had yet to come back, and Vanya felt miserable.

“We shouldn’t have gone to the movies,” she said miserably. “Look where it gets us when we try to have fun.”

Five scoffed. “This didn’t happen…. because we had fun… Vanya,” he said, out of breath. This wasn’t a good sign. He had lost so much blood. “These are just…. assholes looking for money. Not….not our fault. Promise.”

It didn’t cheer Vanya up, but it made her feel a little better. Just then, there was a commotion outside and Vanya’s head automatically snapped to the source of the sound.

“They’re back,” she hissed. “Please don’t say anything stupid.”

Five made a noncommittal sound and closed his eyes.

“Stay awake!” she snapped urgently.

The door wasn’t unlocked. It was, for lack of a better word, ripped off its hinges and almost thrown across the room.

Vanya would have cried at the sight of her siblings if she had any tears left to cry. 

“Five!” Luther screamed. “Vanya!”

Luther ran to Vanya first and snapped the cuffs easily then hurried over to Five, trying to not gasp in horror at the sight of his brother and sister covered in blood and on the verge of passing out. Vanya lowered her arms slowly, her wrists raw coated with dried blood, but the movement pulled at her bullet wound and she cried out. Allison and Klaus surged forward to embrace her, tears in their eyes.

“Are you okay, Vanny?” Klaus asked softly, still hugging her.

She whimpered. “It hurts,” she murmured, voice hoarse from screaming and crying. “It hurts so much.”

Allison hugged her sister close, and Vanya knew this might never happen again. It was a rare occasion, to be hugged. She suddenly felt so incredibly said.

“I know,” Allison whispered, blinking tears out of her eyes. “Mom will fix you up.

"Five,” she said, feeling the hysteria rising. “Five. He’s hurt. He’s--”

Allison gripped her shoulders. “Ben and Luther are taking care of him,” she said. “Worry about yourself, Vanya. Please.”

Vanya hummed, her eyes closing.

“Shit, she can’t fall asleep!” Klaus hissed. “She might have a concussion.”

“Vanya!” Allison said gently. "Please wake up."

Vanya wanted to sleep. “Hey, Vanya,” Klaus said in a soft voice Vanya did not remember ever hearing. “Can you tell me where you and Five went last night?”

Vanya smiled and cracked her eyes open. “We went to see Jurassic Park,” she said. “I was sad and Five wanted to cheer me up. M’ sorry.”

“No, no, no,” Klaus assured her. “Don’t be. Was it fun?”

“Diego!” Luther called, cutting Klaus off. “Come help us!”

Vanya exhaled. “Can I--can I see Five?” she asked softly.

Allison and Klaus didn’t object. They helped her up, her vision going black from the fierce pain, and helped her limp to her brother, hanging limply in Luther’s arms.

His face was all bruised up, and most of his arms and upper chest were coated in dried blood, the cuts ugly and deep. his wrists were also red and irritated, his face pale and sweaty.

“Five,” she said hoarsely. “Five.”

He opened his eyes. “I'm sorry, Vanya,” he muttered, voice cracking. “You… okay?”

Vanya swallowed hard. “I will be.”

“Mom will help,” Ben reassured softly. "We should get out of here."

Vanya felt calmer now that Five was okay, and her siblings were here. She knew tomorrow they’d deny this show of kindness, how Klaus had called her Vanny, how she had been the first one Luther had freed, how Allison had held her hand and cried. How Diego had thrown enough knives at the bad guys to hurt them and then left them for the police to find, but Vanya didn’t mind. She smiled and sagged against Allison, her body falling limp, arms catching her.

**Author's Note:**

> [feel free to peruse my tumbr](https://blas-ph-emy.tumblr.com/)


End file.
